It has been a full three months since the news broke that Vladimir Tarasenko wanted out of St. Louis. He’s coming off his third shoulder surgery, turns 30 is December and has a cap hit of $7.5 million for the next two years.
Benjamin Hochman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports possible destinations are the New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils and Carolina Hurricanes with a possible trade to happen before training camp starts.
The big issue those three teams have is his salary cap hit and will his shoulder hold up? Teams do not want to give up a lot to make a trade, the Buffalo Sabres have the same issue with a Jack Eichel trade.
The Blues trading Tarasenko would give them some financial flexibility, of course. But again, it comes back to this: Which team wants to take on that financial burden? Especially because they don’t know what they’re getting.
The Blues will likely keep Tarasenko for the first few months of the NHL season and see if his shoulder holds up and he returns to his sniper form. Then hope his value goes up, which would hopefully get the team more suitors.
